Born to run so she could chase her dream
WHEN Sally Pearson won the 100m hurdles at the London Olympics in a photo finish over defending champion Dawn Wells, the British TV commentator described her as “a tough competitor”. He didn’t know the half of it.
He went on to say that Pearson had fought back from a shock loss in her previous race to claim the Olympic title, as if that was the biggest setback she had ever had to overcome. In fact she had been a battler from day one.
Her father was never part of her life; her mother Anne McLellan worked three or four jobs to support them both; she was discovered aged 12 by Gold Coast Little Athletics coach Sharon Hannon and would spend hours alone on the bus going to and from training as she chased her dream.
Nothing — not injuries, a fall in the hurdles final at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games or disqualification after winning the 100m in Delhi four years later — could dampen her determination to be the best, or perhaps more correctly, to not fail.
At the Beijing Olympics she won silver in the hurdles but for many people that feat took second place to the fuss created by her TV interview with Brisbane journalist Pat Welsh moments after her name flashed up on the scoreboard.
To some her wide-eyed, childlike astonishment was sweet: an honest, uncontrived reaction in an era of slick media-speak. To others viewing it on YouTube around the world, it painted her as a simple-minded Down Under hick.
It didn’t worry her. Within three years she was world champion and 12 months after that, her ultimate goal, Olympic gold medallist, jogging straight from the finish line into Sharon Hannon’s arms.
Soon after I was given the chance to sit down with Pearson to talk to her about her life and career. It wasn’t an easy interview. She gave the impression that she would much rather run that talk.
Years later she would reveal that she suffers from a condition known as “social anxiety” that makes her uncomfortable in unfamiliar situations.
“Yeah, I had it tough, but at the same time it’s not a sad story,’’ she said.